New GOP plan to introduce high-frequency trading into health care

Sunday

Apr 20, 2014 at 12:30 AM

By Philip Maddocks

Fearing what they call the Russian roulette approach of the Affordable Care Act, senior Republicans are seeking to introduce high-frequency trading into health care as a means of adding some much-needed market stability to the nation’s shaky medical treatment system."It may have taken us dozens of failed attempts at repealing Obamacare, but I think that has finally led us to the answer," said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington.GOP leaders say the practice of relying on millions of split-second decisions by high-speed computers to manage the health of Americans could revolutionize the way medicine is practiced and revitalize the party’s stalled effort at producing a long-promised alternative to the Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s signature legislative achievement."There is a lot to like about the Affordable Care Act, conceded Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the majority leader. "Like guaranteed coverage for pre-existing conditions, allowing children to remain on their parents’ policies until age 26, and barring insurers from imposing lifetime benefit caps. But where it falls short is in having a government bureaucracy try to do what a high-speed computer can do so much better."With the Affordable Care Act facing a range of obstacles, political and otherwise, in the months ahead, and with the administration still grappling with policy questions such as how to levy the penalty on individuals who lack insurance, how much premiums will go up in the coming year, and how ultimately to administer the requirement that employers provide insurance, Republicans feel the time is right to advance a plan of their own, even one dependent on a mostly unknown trading practice that is being investigated by the Justice Department."If Americans were as healthy as Wall Street, we’d all be living until 175," said House Speaker John Boehner, who introduced the press conference in the Capitol Building Rotunda by ringing a bell that is a replica of the one used to open trading on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.Mr. Boehner hailed the new and possibly illegal GOP health care plan, with its reliance on high-frequency trading, as "an important milestone in the health care debate.""We’ve been looking for a market-based solution to this government boondoggle," he said. "And it has been sitting here - right under our noses and in the shadows of Wall Street - all this time."Putting the health of hundreds of millions Americans at the mercy of computer decisions made in milliseconds, he added, "is just common sense."House Republicans – who have been struggling to find consensus for health care legislation to replace the Affordable Care Act - are planning to test their idea for a high-frequency-trading-centered plan in town-hall-style meetings, hoping to highlight why their strategy would save most health care consumers money, especially compared with the rising out-of-pocket costs they say are driven by the current law."High-frequency trading has already been test driven on Wall Street and it works. Why wouldn’t we want to use it?" said Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, the majority whip. "It will be good for our health and good for the economy."He said once Americans learn about the GOP plan, they will realize that its approach is probably better - "and certainly more American" - than the Affordable Care Act’s.Mr. McCarthy and other party leaders argued that putting high-speed computers to work on health decisions will speed up treatments, cut down on wait times in emergency rooms, reduce ambulance response times, eliminate malpractice suits, and shorten hospital stays to milliseconds."Unlike the president and congressional Democrats, we have been listening to the American people. And Americans don’t want some slow government bureaucrat making decisions about their health when lightning-fast computers could do it so much quicker."A few Republicans have expressed concerns that offering a detailed health care alternative will give Democrats a target, allowing them to regain footing just as attacks on the law are taking a political toll.But mostly the idea of turning over the medical care of the vast majority of Americans to a secretive trading process that takes advantage of complex computers, willing accomplices in the stock exchanges and some poorly thought-out federal regulation, is just the kind of idea the party has been waiting to embrace."We know that Americans want a choice," said Mr. McCarthy, "And we’re pretty sure the only thing they would like better is for a computer to make it for them."Philip Maddocks writes a weekly satirical column. He can be reached at pmaddocks@wickedlocal.com.

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